Attaching electrical powered products, such as a series of lights to a main insulated wire conductor often required the installer having to remove part of the insulation layer to expose the underlying wire conductor so that additional connections to other lights can be made. Having to strip off the insulation is both time consuming and also requires the installer reseal the connection which is often done by electrical tape and the like. The use of temporary covers such as electrical tape is not desirable in outside applications, since the tape can easily degrade and fall off over time exposes the bare wire conductor.
Attempts have been made of the year to pierce the insulation layer with prong type components. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,171 to Czerlanis. However, this connector arrangement requires to separate prong pieces that must be separately manipulated and pushed together. If the parts are not precisely and exactly manipulated together the prongs may not couple with one another. Furthermore, having two separate prong pieces raises the likelihood of losing a prong piece if an installer needs to make multiple connections off a main insulated wire conductor.
Additionally the prong pieces have exposed sharp portions for use in penetrating the insulator, which can potentially stick into and injure the installer trying to push the prongs with sharp points together.
Along a low-voltage 12V DC (direct current) or AC (alternating current) power supply cable of a landscape lighting system, it is possible to draw electrical power from the cable at any desired position for supplying power to an electrical device and in particular a lighting fixture in a garden or front/back yard where lighting is desired. A specific type of electrical connector is used for this purpose, which is mounted on the cable at that position and is then screwed tight to pierce a pair of sharp pins into the cable cores for extracting power.
Connectors of this type are known in general. See for example, U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,448 to Poon, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,690 to Nehm-Engelberts. But these connectors are not convenient to use. For example, the cable leading to the electrical device is cumbersome to connect or disconnect. Such connectors are often material and/or labor intensive to manufacture.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.